President Joe Biden has chosen Alanna McCargo senior advisor at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as the new president of Ginnie Mae.
Ginnie Mae, or the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), has been without a permanent occupant of its top position for more than four years after the resignation of its last president, Ted Tozer. McCargo would be the first Senate-confirmed head of the agency since January 2017.
McCargo’s nomination was one of 10 announced collectively by the White House on Monday. Currently, she serves as senior advisor for housing finance at the Department of Housing & Urban Development.
The pick continues the administration’s theme of focusing on the advancement of equitable housing opportunities in the housing market. Per a fact sheet from the Biden Administration, her career in housing spans decades, “centered on how America’s housing finance system can equitably provide credit and capital to households and affordable housing stakeholders.”
The White House also described McCargo as instrumental in various programs helping keep Americans in their homes such as foreclosure prevention and loan modification.
Her most recent work is as vice president of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where she developed research focused on reducing racial homeownership gaps, increasing housing affordability, and reducing barriers to accessing credit and capital. She also served as executive director of the Mortgage Servicing Collaborative, a cross-sector initiative that identified and developed policy recommendations for mortgage servicing and securitization reforms to enable a more stable housing finance system. McCargo has also held previous roles at CoreLogic and JP Morgan Chase, and spent a decade at Fannie Mae.
McCargo’s extensive experience in the mortgage industry was met with approval from industry officials, including Bob Broeksmit, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
“MBA applauds the decision to nominate Alanna McCargo to be president of Ginnie Mae,” he said. “Ginnie Mae is a critically important agency in our housing finance system, and Alanna has a deep understanding of the agency and a demonstrated track record of working with industry, government, and housing advocates on key housing policy issues.”
“MBA looks forward to working with her, and other senior staff at Ginnie Mae, on ways to enhance liquidity for Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities and help make affordable residential and rental housing a reality for millions of low- and moderate-income households by channeling global capital into the nation’s housing markets.”
